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Species Information
Summary: Also listed in Morels etc. category. Features include irregularly cup-shaped to wavy-flattened-wrinkled fruitbody that is yellow-ocher or yellow to orange-brown to yellow; underside that is whitish and downy; distinct fluted stem usually buried in ground; growth under conifers; and microscopic characters including rough spores with a projection at each end that is two-pointed at maturity.
Gyromitra leucoxantha is found at least in BC, AB, and UT, (Abbott), and OR and ID, (Larsen). It has been reported from WA by Andrew Parker, pers. comm., as well as from ON and PQ, (Ginns), and from eastern North America and Europe (including United Kingdom and Italy,) (Abbott).
Upper surface: 1-3.5cm across, 0.5-1.5cm high (up to 6.5cm x 2cm fresh), irregularly cup-shaped to reflexed; orange brown to bright orange brown, when dry bright red-brown; undulate-wrinkled, (Abbott), 2-5(8)cm, disc-shaped to plate-shaped when young, "then expanded and flat and lying close to ground with a slightly turned-up margin" that is irregularly sinuous and wavy; upper spore-bearing surface ocher-yellow to yolk-yellow, irregularly wrinkled and undulating, (Breitenbach), 4-7cm across, nearly spherical at first, expanding and finally flat; when fresh yellow-ochraceous or bright ochraceous brown, drying pale brown; smooth to irregularly rugulose [wrinkled], (Ginns), up to about 10cm across (Trudell)
Flesh: two-layered in section, (Breitenbach)
Underside: white to pallid brown; pubescent [finely downy], smooth or with a few ribs at base, (Abbott), whitish to cream, (Breitenbach), pale yellow brown or pale yellow; smooth to wrinkled, often in a pattern of concentric ridges, (Ginns)
Stem: 0.5-1.5cm x 0.5-1cm (up to 2.5cm x 1.5cm fresh), usually distinct but often buried, equal, flaring and merging with cup; white to pallid brown; pubescent, fluted, ribs broadly rounded, solid, (Abbott), thick, distinct, embedded deeply in ground, (Breitenbach), about 1cm long, fluted, solid or apparently hollow, (Ginns)
Microscopic: spores 25.9-31.1 x 11.1-13.9 microns, subfusoid to fusoid [somewhat spindle-shaped to spindle-shaped], distinctly roughened to reticulate, colorless, apiculus prominent 1.5-2.8 microns long "with depressed (concave) apiculi at maturity, submature spores with slight apical thickenings, truncate knobs, or small depressed apiculi", with 1 to 3 droplets, one large central round to elliptic one and 0-2 smaller ones at the ends; asci 19.2-22.3 microns wide; paraphyses 6.4-9.0 microns wide at tip, club-shaped, gradually enlarged to abruptly swollen at tip, "brown, contents coarsely granular", (Abbott), spores 28-32 x 14-16 (not including appendages), elliptic, finely punctate and weakly reticulate, colorless, with 1 droplet, usually with appendage on each end, each with 2 projections; asci 8-spored, 280 x 17 microns, inamyloid; paraphyses "cylindric, tips slightly clavate with granular contents", (Breitenbach), spores 30-36 x 12-15 microns, (Dennis), spores 26-31 x 10-13 microns in water (excluding appendages), elliptic, smooth to coarsely wrinkled, colorless, IKI-, appendages one at each end, broad, truncated, usually centrally depressed, 1.8-3.6 microns long, (Ginns), spores 30-40 x 12-18 microns with two-humped tips (Trudell)
Habitat / Range
single to gregarious on soil, litter, or woody debris in coniferous woods, May 10 to June 8 in BC, (Abbott), single to gregarious under larch and spruce, shortly after snowmelt, (Breitenbach), on soil in woods of mixed hardwood and coniferous species, in May and early June, (Ginns)
Similar Species
Gyromitra ancilis has its fresh upper surface colored orange-brown to red-brown or dark brown, and spore apiculi are pointed rather than depressed (concave-truncate appearing as if there are two points instead of one), (Abbott). Gyromitra olympiana spores may develop a broad blunt thickening at both ends. Gyromitra melaleucoides spores are smaller and lack apiculi. Spores of Gyromitra ancilis, Gyromitra olympiana, Gyromitra leucoxantha, and Gyromitra melaleucoides should be mature spores from a spore deposit when a comparison is made (Michael Beug, pers. comm.).
